Anne-marie Duff

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Anne-Marie Duff at the 2018 Laurence Olivier Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' was the big winner of the night, with 'Girl From The North Country' and 'The Ferryman' also taking home prizes - London, United Kingdom - Sunday 8th April 2018

Based on real events a century ago that still resonate loudly today, this movie takes a cleverly fictionalised angle to explore the suffrage movement, a story that astonishingly has never been put on film before. Screenwriter Abi Morgan's script brings intelligence and honesty to the characters, avoiding cliches to make the political statements as fresh and important today as they were back then. And it's anchored by another solid performance from Carey Mulligan.

She plays Maud, a young woman in 1912 London who has grown up working in a grim laundry, which is where she met her husband Sonny (Ben Whishaw). Then her best friend Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) introduces her to the women's voting rights movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep). And Maud is intrigued, joining with her local chemist's wife Edith (Helena Bonham Carter) for protests and getting involved in civil disobedience. This puts her on the list of offenders followed by a tenacious policeman (Brendan Gleeson), and Sonny finds it very difficult to cope with the embarrassment. So Maud has to make a very tough decision about whether to carry on the fight.

Making the film's main characters working-class heroines was a clever way to draw in modern-day audiences. In real life, the suffragettes were middle-class women who didn't particularly want any of the working class (men or women) to have the vote. But of course, once the movement started, it didn't end there, ultimately extending right through society. And the film cleverly mixes these fictional characters alongside real historical figures to bring the events vividly to life. Mulligan provides the emotional gut punch as an intelligent but uneducated woman who has been abused all her life and is finally standing up for herself. Her scenes with each of the supporting cast have real power, including less sympathetic characters like Whishaw's loving but fearful husband.

Activists from the anti-domestic violence group Sisters Uncut climbed over the barriers and laid down on the red carpet.

Dozens of feminist protestors have staged a demonstration at the red carpet reception for the movie Suffragette, which held its premiere at Leicester Square in London on Wednesday afternoon.

Activists from the feminist group Sisters Uncut, who campaign against domestic violence, used the glitzy red carpet event to stage a vocal protest against funding cuts to domestic violence services, with nearly 100 demonstrators clambering over the barriers and lying down on the walkway, while their comrades shouted slogans such as “cuts kill” and “dead women don’t vote”.

While many have praised the feminist sentiments, a large number of critics have claimed that the use of the slogan on the T-shirts was insensitive of the historical context of the word ‘slave’. The photoshoot was also accused of inappropriately using four white, privileged women to invoke the struggles of slaves in the Confederate south.

Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, a secret war took place on the streets of England. For years, women of all ages and classes had fought for their right to vote, although they used politics and reason as their biggest weapon. When no clear results were seen, a specialist group formed a more radical idea - to take the political campaign out of the shadows and into the streets, with protests and fighting to gain what was theirs by right. But as the government fights back even harder, desperate times call for desperate measures.

A clever premise can't help but grab the audience's attention as this mystery-thriller plays with ideas of identity and memory, but the simplistic filmmaking makes it feel like a cheat. Writer-director Rowan Joffe (2010's Brighton Rock remake) badly underestimates the audience, using melodrama and contrived storytelling to try to manipulate viewers' emotions. And it doesn't help that the leading lady can't move her face.

Nicole Kidman stars as Christine, who wakes up every morning thinking that she's 23. When she discovers Ben (Colin Firth) in her bed, she's almost as horrified as when she sees her 40-year-old face in the mirror. But Ben patiently explains who she is, that he's her husband and that an accident damaged her ability to make new long-term memories. When he leaves for work each day, she is contacted by Dr Nash (Mark Strong), who helps nudge her into the present. But all of this does little more than make Christine wonder whether anyone is telling the truth. As she digs deeper each day, she gets in touch with her friend Claire (Anne-Marie Duff), who offers some continuity. And by piecing clues together she begins to realise that there's a gap between what's really happening and what she thinks she remembers.

With elements of both Memento and 50 First Dates, this film is packed with tricky elements that add to the suspense, creating a creepy atmosphere that's surprisingly moving as seen through Christine's eyes. Even with her immobile face, Kidman's eyes are alert and emotive, strongly conveying Christine's yearning to understand the truth. Opposite her, the always terrific Duff has the film's best role simply because she seems to be who she claims to be. Meanwhile, Firth and Strong have a great time wrong-footing both Christine and the audience, or maybe they're just misunderstood. The fascinating premise forces us to sift through the clues ourselves to figure out what's going on.

Christine Lucas is suffering from a complicated form of amnesia whereby she cannot remember anything about her past, who she is, who her family are and the nature of the terrifying incident which left her that way. More still, each day she wakes up with no recollection of anything, despite having learnt plenty of information about herself before she went to sleep the day before. In a bid to recall all the lost information, she records a video diary day by day and soon learns that not everyone around her can be trusted. Her husband Ben is refusing to tell her certain things about her past, while her doctor, Dr. Nash, appears to have ulterior motives as he helps her to recover. It becomes more and more evident as the day presses on that something shockingly corrupt has occurred - and she's the only person who knows what it is.

'Before I Go To Sleep' is a gripping psychological thriller based on the acclaimed book of the same name by S.J. Watson. Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, it has been both directed and written by Rowan Joffe ('Brighton Rock', '28 Weeks Later', 'The American', 'Last Resort') and is due for cinematic release in the UK on September 5th 2014.

Jack O'Brien's Macbeth has debuted at Broadway's Vivian Beaumont, giving Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke a chance to show off his lesser-known skill for Shakespearean stage acting as the titular, tormented thane. Critics have largely praised the dark and atmospheric production, yet the sensation that Hawke could have delved deeper into the tortured recesses of his character's psyche seems to be prevalent.

Ethan Hawke Shows His Versatility As An Actor In 'Macbeth' But Fails To Dig Deep.

The NY Times assesses the "dismal" yet "chic" production and concludes that Hawke is lacking. "Though best known as a movie star, Mr. Hawke has demonstrated his stage-worthiness [...] His is a mumblecore Macbeth [...] He delivers Shakespeare's poetry like a moody, glue-sniffing teenager reciting Leonard Cohen lyrics to himself," writes Ben Brantley.

Take That star Jason Orange is making a foray into acting and will appear in the final series of Channel 4's Shameless. The singer, 42, will head to the fictional Chatsworth Estate as DJ Scouse Mouse, who runs a music festival in the neighbourhood frequented by Frank Gallagher and company.

According to the BBC, it is thought Orange filmed the scenes this week, before getting a tour of the set, including The Jockey, the boozer favoured by Frank. In October, it was announced the long-run series was to come to an end after eleven series. The final batch of episodes will also feature the return of Ann-Marie Duff, the actress who rose to fame in the comedy as Fiona Gallagher before going on to become a highly respected theatre and film actress. She is married to the Scottish star James McAvoy. A show insider told the Daily Telegraph that Take That singer Orange was "nervous" before getting in front of the camera, though was a big hit with the rest of the cast. Another show source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "[Jason] had a great time on set and was line perfect for a triumphant TV acting debut."

It's not the first time Jason has played a DJ on television, starring as Brent Moyer in 1998's Killer Net television series.

A double love story based on real events from the life of Leo Tolstoy, this period film combines comedy and emotion in a way that's always entertaining, even if it sometimes feels camp and contrived.

Valentin (McAvoy) is a young Tolstoyan in 1910 assigned by the movement's leader Chertkov (Giamatti) to keep an eye on Leo Tolstoy (Plummer) and his sceptical wife Sofya (Mirren). But what Valentin finds is a lively, loving marriage that's strong enough to include opposing views. This isn't good enough for Chertkov, who moves to get Leo to change his will to leave everything to the movement. Which of course enrages Sofya. Meanwhile, Valentin is experiencing his first flush of love with a Tolstoyan commune resident (Condon).

Stirring up controversy for its depiction of Ireland's brutal, now-defunct Magdalene laundries for wayward girls, Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters muckrakes the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and comes off seeming self-righteous, gloomy, and redundant. Opening with young Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) getting raped at a family gathering by her cousin, followed by brash Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) cooing to boys in the schoolyard, and finally showing timid little Rose (Dorothy Duffy), whose illegitimate child is snatched away at the hospital, The Magdalene Sisters firmly and staunchly paints its victims into a corner and keeps them there. The parents hide their eyes in indifference or dismay, sending them into the cruel clutches of the incomparably cruel Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) and her chamber of horrors--a prison run by nuns where beatings, canings, oppressive work conditions, and random cruelties are part of the daily routine.

There aren't any particular surprises in The Magdalene Sisters once the three heroines are locked away. Most sequences follow the same pattern, where the lank-haired, poorly fed, and half-clothed girls aspire for freedom, love, or fair treatment and are met with beatings and brutality. Lest there be any doubt of Sister Bridget's wicked witch nastiness, she's often seen counting her money and turning a blind eye to the random injustices within her makeshift girl's prison. Often compared with Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched, a more careful viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest will reveal subtleties to the character that don't exist in the one-note tyrant, Sister Bridget.